Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Wow, talk about big news. The Daily Cardinal, one of our two student newspapers, yesterday broke this story, reprinted in part here:

UW acquires Chomsky in blockbuster deal

In a move signifying a “win now” mindset, UW-Madison acquired aging superstar linguistics professor Noam Chomsky from M.I.T. yesterday in exchange for five professors and two draft picks.

Heading to Cambridge in the blockbuster deal will be English professor Richard Knowles, psychology professor Janet Hyde, journalism professor James Baughman, art history professor Nancy Rose Marshall and political science professor Howard Schweber.

M.I.T. will also receive the first round draft picks UW acquired last summer from U. Chicago and Princeton in the Jon Pevehouse and David Leheny trades, respectively.

Wisconsin Chancellor and General Manager John Wiley said Chomsky will propel the school into higher education’s upper tiers.

“Noam is a proven commodity who will provide us with a dominating inside presence,” Wiley said. “He immediately boosts our journal citation stats and will draw defenders away from the perimeter, freeing other professors to take the outside research grant shot.”

We all play hard every day, every minute, but just knowing the Chomp will be in there with us is a huge boost. We can do this. Let's get this party started.

Image from here. Hat tip to, well, you know who you are. And some, hmmmmm, related stories can be found here.